AN: Sorry for the long wait everyone but I had to give my computer into the service depot and they took like two weeks to fix it plus school and work have been hairy. And I've had my internet taken away at school and I haven't had time to get on the internet at all. GreenGlow, we're going to have to agree to disagree on the ocean thing because I live on an island in the middle of the Atlantic and that bitch is cold. As a matter of fact I'm sitting in my car parked at the shore right now writing on my laptop. And since we get ice from December till like April or May all around us and in all our harbours and British Columbia which is on the other coast of my country on the Pacific never gets ice and has a year round shipping port as a result at least in Canada the Pacific is quite a bit warmer then the Atlantic. I doubt it makes much difference either way in the Tropics but in the north it makes quite a bit of difference. The Pacific is warmer. They don't have to pull their boats on the west coast but on the east where I am we have to dry dock them all for the winter because if we left them in they'd get frozen in the ice. PS I don't know Spanish so if it's wrong it's cause the online thingie didn't tell me right. I got the swearing on lock but the real stuff is harder.
Chapter 36 – In His Place
I followed Tej's big Dodge Ram 4X4 down the highway. We arrived in the neighbourhood we raced in and at each street that had to be blocked off a crew of people would jump out of the truck and put up road closed signs. It all looked very official. It was pissing me off to stop so much though.
I've driven a lot of cars in my day. I've driven all the team's cars at one point or another, I've driven my own for years, and of course there was the infamous Civic. But none of those cars prepared me for the feel of that Acura flying down the highway.
The car itself wasn't so spectacular in stock form. It's a pretty nice, pretty fast car, don't get me wrong, but it's not a spectacular car straight from Acura. The way I'd built it however was downright inspiring. I was getting to the point that my car or not I didn't much care anymore. I was ready to open it up and just go. I was actually getting frustrated keeping it to a reasonable speed behind Tej. Not to mention how I felt when we got to the area and started all the starting and stopping.
I can't find the words to explain to the uninitiated what it feels like to go flying down an open road in a really fast car that handles like it's gliding on rails and sounds like an angry thunder god when you have it wide open. You're well planted on the ground, in my case via a set of very sticky Toyo tires, but it feels like you're flying. I use to have this bumper sticker on the Nissan that said 'I'm not driving too fast, I'm flying low.' In some places in California where the road curves close to the shoreline the feeling is even more intense because it even feels like you're driving right into the clouds. Sometimes I turn the radio off and just listen to my car rev with the windows open and feel like I'm so high in the clouds none of the shit in my life can touch me.
Dom and all his shit. All the lies, the yelling, the screaming, the cheating, all of it is down below and I'm flying above it all in my own world where none of it matters. Of course like every other mental trick to run away from your problems I always end up crash landed back on earth eventually but more often then not some of the freedom stays and none of the shit that seemed so important and so terrible is all that important anymore when I land. And I don't need to be in some ten second race for that to happen. I just need me and my car. I guess, instead of escaping by yelling or taking it out on other people I just take off and take it out on the road in my car.
That's the difference between Dom and me. Dom needs that rush from the crowd, the people cheering, the girls wanting to get on him just because he's the fastest at driving a car in a straight line down some street for ten seconds. All I need is a road, a fast car and some time alone. I think of the two of us I'm the luckier one. Dom'd be a lot better off if he could just remember what it's like to simply drive. Drive fast because you don't know what you'll do if you don't, because you love the speed, because you love your car. Because you can get that same rush just off the speed, not the competition. Not because some stupid vato or skanky bitch is going to think you're a big man for a few hours after a ten second car race.
If he could just go for a drive to take his bad moods out in private instead of taking them out on me and the team life would be better for everyone concerned too. Dom gets upset or angry and then he tries to make everyone else upset and miserable right along with him with his bad moods.
Shit, someone slap me I sound like a sissy bitch! Of course for the five weeks that I'd been working on Tej's car I really hadn't had time to race or even go to races. I really hadn't even had time to go for drives. I'd missed it. Racing is a big part of my life. I guess I'm like a junky. When you take away my drug of choice I start to get all sentimental an shit about it. Good thing I'm gonna get a hit tonight because if I get any sappier I'm gonna have to kill myself.
I checked my rear view and saw Brian in his Skyline just behind me. I assume Rome and Fiona are back there too. Not to mention Suki and Jimmy. If I win I'll be their queen. If I loose they'll all be around to see me fall. This is one of those make or break moments that define a situation and set the tone for how things will go on. They knew I was good, and they couldn't take that away from me. I'd beaten Rome. I'd beaten Suki. I was just as good with the cars as any of them. But if I lost in the car that was my creation it was like it would take away from all the success I'd had up till now.
We rolled up on races and parked the cars. I was surrounded by people who wanted to stare at the car pretty much right away.
"Back up, back up! Give the girl some room!" Tej called out, marshalling the crowd. "Keep your hands off the car boy!" Tej slapped the hand of some kid who went to touch the hood away. "You can all look your fill while the car is racin three of your asses down the street. I need two volunteers with three grand lose!"
"Um Tej?" I asked, knowing his math did not work out. Me plus two equalled three, not four.
"Yeah?" Tej smirked at me and it struck fear in me. Just how he did it. It was so evil. I knew I wasn't going to like the answers.
"You said I was racing three more people."
"Yeah."
"Why do you only need two volunteers?"
"Oh," Tej's head nodded back in a confident little gesture. "I got your forth." The smirk did not go away.
"Oh yeah? Who?"
"Bullit."
"Aw hell no! I'm not racin Chumpy."
"Why? You scared he'll win?"
"Hell no I'm not scared he'll win. I just don't want to race him."
"Maybe he'll earn the right to be called something other then Chumpy." I just glared back with my Letty-the-badass-don't-mess-with-me look in place. The look that sent my guys cowering for cover before I really let lose on them. I don't think it'll be working on Tej. He just kept right on smirking. "Listen, I wanna know how fast that car is and the only thing that's gonna make you have to push it is putting it up against the Skyline. So Brian's in, you're racing him." I went to protest. To tell him hell no actually. No one makes me do what I don't want to do. "It's not an optional activity." He continued before I could make my protest.
"Tej, she's right bro, I don't want to race Reina." Brian broke in and added his own opinion with a nervous glance at me. He was likely scared of getting his ass kicked if he won.
"Too bad. Line up. I'm gonna find two and three." Tej walked off into the crowd.
"Well, looks like this is it Brian. We're gonna know who's faster after tonight."
"I'd rather not know." Brian grimaced.
"Hell Chumpy, you already do! You couldn't beat Dom and you can't beat me." I punched his shoulder and grinned. I hate to see Brian down.
"We'll see about that Letty." Brian's 'wouldn't you like to know' smirk was firmly in place as he went to his car and backed it up. I backed up mine and followed him to the line. It looked like he was gonna take my right hand spot so I zipped up around him on the inside. As my driver's window was level with his front fender I got a blast of something in my window from inside his wheel well. It happened a few more times and I finally figured out what it was. He was purging his NOS lines and instead of just venting the gas out under the hood or whatever he was spraying it out the wells like the car was snorting. Too bad the front of it wasn't painted like a dragon.
We both squealed to a stop on the line.
"Damn Brian, I'm glad I had my windows up. Who set your purge valves up like that?"
"Jimmy." Brian smiled wolfishly as the lines purged again and blew up the skirt of a skank who'd come up to his car for a closer look.
"Oh Brian, it's always about a chick isn't it."
"No, it's about an image." Brian turned serious. "I'm something to these people, Letty. Tej made me and I do things his way. He made sure I had races when I didn't have a dime. He helped me finish the car and he made it so I got invited places and got races to run just based off who I am. But we have what he calls a relationship of mutual respect. He did all that for me and in return I race when he tells me, I share my winnings and I keep up the image he made for me."
"You're just sayin that cause you don't want me to kick your ass into next Tuesday." I laughed to try and bring the sad look off of Brian's face. "Playboy."
"Aiight, I get a bit of a kick out of all the attention." Brian grinned. "But it's all a big act. For real."
I looked past Brian as Suki stopped on the line. Third down. Who was the fourth gonna be? I got out of my car to wait and Brian did the same thing.
"Who's he gonna get for 4?"
"Wish I knew." Brian answered and looked around. "Could be anyone."
"Who's this good?"
"I'm not sure."
Brian had more to say but he was cut off by the arrival of an orange RX-7 on the line. As the door of the new car opened Brian sighed and crossed his arms. "Here we go."
"Hey Tej, ese! I've been workin on my car homes, it's all fixed up and I'm ready to race!"
"Welcome back man. I hope that car is as ready as you think cause this ain't gonna be no Sunday drive."
"You got me up against two skirts man! How hard do you think I'll have to work?"
The abrasive Latin man laughed uproariously at his own joke and sneered my way.
"I hope you don't pussy out like you did last time." Suki said with a rude gesture toward the new man. He returned the favour and turned to me.
"Mami, after I beat you in the streets maybe you want me to show you a real man between the sheets ay?"
I turned to look at Brian. "Is he talking to me?" I cocked one eyebrow. He could not be talking to me. He had to be talking to Suki.
Brian looked from him to me. "Yeah, he's talkin to you." Brian did not look happy to be telling me that.
"I know he ain't talking to me like that." I started his way. No way was he making comments to me like that and walking away to gloat about it later. My hands clutched into fists involuntarily at my sides.
"It won't do any good Lett. He'll still be that exact same way tomorrow." Brian hissed as he followed me toward the idiot who thought he was the world's worst hombre.
"No, he'll have an icepack on his nuts tomorrow." I tossed back over my shoulder as I sauntered up to this new threat to my reputation. Brian shoulda known I couldn't just let him get away with talking to me like that. The whole crowd would think I was some weak ass bitch who couldn't stand up for herself.
"Hola ese. ¿Usted desea esto?" Do you want this, want me, I asked him as I came to a stop in front of him with my chest slightly trust out and consciously licked my lower lip with the tip of my tongue. He watched the motion then answered me.
"Si mami." He leered. The look on his face was totally priceless. He thought he was winning. He thought that his attitude had actually worked on a real girl. I guess he's just deluded or some shit.
"¿Cuál es su nombre?" I stood with a hand on my hip and my head cocked to the side, fighting to keep my face schooled into a non-violent expression. I didn't want him to know just how close to getting the smug look beaten off his face he was.
"It's Julian but people call me Orange Julius. Or just Jul."
"Well, Julian," I used the full form of his name just to emphasize the fact that I was not ok with him. Not even close. "I don't like your tone when you talk to me, or about Suki. I bet I wouldn't like your tone when you talked about any woman though would I?" I didn't give him a chance to answer. "Because you've been beaten down by one of us one too many times and since you have some male issue with it and what it does to your ego you try to trash talk us into losing before we ever step on the street. Not tonight my friend."
"You think you can beat me perra?"
Oh no he didn't just call me a bitch. "I was gonna settle my score with you on the blacktop but you just ended that easier option with that dirty ass mouth, chi-chi carbon." I guess when I called him an asshole he got really mad. He stood up off his car with his eyes flashing blue murder.
"What you gonna do about it skirt?" He smirked at me and it was the last straw.
"Maybe this?" I asked with a raised eyebrow and then before I could loose my nerve over thinking what Tej was gonna do to me for it I decked him in the nose.
"You bitch!" He screamed as he held his now gushing blood nose.
"And then because you're still running that filthy mouth one of these." I took hold of his shoulders and drove my knee into his crotch as hard as I could. With a scream he hit the ground holding his crotch and moaning. The crowd went wild, cheering and screaming. Most of the girls were on my side, cheering me on and most of the guys were booing. I understand. It's always a low blow to go for the nuts. I know that. But that guy had it coming for how he talked to me and for how he talked to girls in general. "Think on that next time you decide girls can't race or fight. Chinga tu madre!" I flipped him off as I told him off.
He was still in too much pain to answer. He just looked up at me from were he was squirming on the ground, his eyes bugged out and his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. He looked so small and pathetic down there, so weak. He was robbed of his male brazenness and it made him look like a little boy. He was sad and pathetic and his attitude toward women was just an outward symptom of a bigger issue. Brian was right. Come tomorrow I'd just be another bitch who made him look stupid. He'd likely hate women even more. But if he kept his mouth shut next time it'd all be worth it. If he even slightly figured out that not every woman wanted to cater to his whims and listen to his shit, and maybe even got a clue there were girls who could kick his mother fucken ass I'd be satisfied.
Tej came running up. "What are you doin?" He looked really angry.
"Shutting his loud, annoying, fucken mouth." I answered, not willing to explain myself to him for doing what I did. This time it wasn't about some girl who ran her mouth and pissed me off. It wasn't about me not being able to control my temper. It was about that asshole thinking he had the right to treat another human being like they were less worthy because they didn't have a dick. I hate that attitude. I hate the fact that two race skanks are at this very moment helping him to his feet and fawning over him. "You two seriously need to get some self respect and lose his annoying ass!" I called after them as they helped Julian to his car.
"How's he supposed to race with ice on his nuts?" Tej grumbled, still shooting me death glares.
"I don't know. If his nuts are too sore to let him use the peddles find somebody else. I'm not takin his shit. He talked trash about me, about Suki."
"You don't even like Suki!" Tej threw up his hands in agitation, not understanding my logic.
"Who says I don't. We came to something of an understanding. Besides it coulda been any other girl. What if he was calling Fiona skirt and treating her bad cause she's not a guy?"
"He's always been that way Letty. You nailin him where the sun don't shine isn't gonna change that."
"Maybe not, but I bet it makes him think twice bout running that mouth out loud next time. He always gets away with his shit because most girls just roll their eyes and walk away, or think it's flattering in some way to have him all over them like he is right? Well it's time he learned that there are girls out there who can take care of themselves and won't just put up with his bad attitude because it's 'the nice thing' to do."
"Yeah, yeah, but what am I supposed to do about a forth?" Tej held my gaze steadily.
"Find someone else." I gazed back, refusing to look away.
"Tej, man what up brotha!" Another person I didn't know walked up to Tej and they shook hands.
"Nothin Hakim, just lookin for a fourth."
"To race who?"
"Bullit, Suki, and my new girl here, Letty."
"Count me in Bro. I finally got the night of work and I was hoping to get a race in."
I looked from Tej to the new man, Hakim, wondering if he was as good as the man I'd taken out of commission.
"That's what I'm talkin 'bout!" Tej seemed very pleased. "I had Julius in but Letty here took care of him when he pulled his same shit with her. But you're even better for what I had in mind."
Hakim just smiled. "What's he drive?" I asked Tej.
"Mitsubishi 3000GT."
"Twin turbo?" I questioned further.
"Twin turbo." Hakim confirmed with a grin. "Nice to meet you, Letty, was it?"
"Yeah, Letty. I take you to be Hakim?"
"That's me. What are you runnin?"
"Tej's newly restored NSX." He looked shocked and I smirked.
"Who rebuilt that thing?"
"I did." I smiled at the shocked look on his face. And Tej had thought that the race was going to be between me'n Brian. The night just got more interesting by half.
"Ok, you two can get better acquainted after we race." Tej put an end to our conversation and turned to the track. "Get your car to the line man, and you get in yours girl. We got a race to run."
"Yes sir." I answered sarcastically and turned to move toward the Acura.
"Who'd he get?" Brian questioned me as I started to slide into the car.
"Some dude in a Mitsubishi named-" Brian cut me off.
"Hakim."
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Because he's the only one in a Mitsubishi around here that's good enough to run in this group. He's the only one who's ever beaten me." Brian caught my shocked look. "But not by much." He was quick to add.
"I see. So I guess this race is between me'n him huh?" I teased, smirking smugly.
"Not a chance." Brian grinned.
"Listen up!" Tej called. We stopped talking to each other and looked up at Tej. "Tonight I got somethin special on the go for ya'll. As many of you know I had a wreck in my Acura a few years ago and I never raced since. And I never fixed the car. But I got a new mechanic recently and to find out just how good she was, if she was as good as she said I set her to fixin that Acura. And tonight it's back on the black for the first time in two years." The assembled crowd went crazy jumping and cheering.
"And to make it even better, you are about to see Letty, a new racer on our streets who's beaten everything we've thrown at her take that Acura up against our very own hometown unbeatable hero Brian in his 99 Skyline, my girl Suki and last but far from least Hakim and his super fast Mitsubishi 3000GT."
If I thought the crowd was loud when they thought they were gonna see me race Brian it was nothing to how crazy then went when we threw Hakim into the mix. I got a quick second to ask Brian what was up with them being so insane over Hakim and Brian told me it was because he was seriously good but he always got stuck working double shifts over the whole evening and graveyard shift when there was racing going on. No one ever got to see him run and they knew how fast shit was when Brian faced Hakim.
With a glance at each other we both slid into our cars. I glanced over to my left. I looked past Brian, who due to the backwards setup of his car was sitting right beside me, over to where Suki was snarling at her LCD display past her to where Hakim was sitting in his car with a gansta lean talking to people on the sidelines.
As much as I tried to tell myself it was just another race I couldn't quite convince myself of that fact. It wasn't just another race for me. I was out of my typical league. I raced quite a few good racers since I'd gotten into Miami. But no one really good. No one in Dom's league. Until tonight that is. Tonight I knew I was up against people that could give Dom a run for his money and I was nervous. I wasn't sure I was this good.
I'll give Brian credit. He's gotten good since he got here. When he slides into his car and turns on his NOS all the little insecurities I saw in him when we were just standing around talking disappear. He becomes just as confident and sure of himself behind the wheel as Dom. He wouldn't be like that if he wasn't good at what he does. And it was obvious from both attitude and crowd reaction that Hakim had reason to be confident too.
It's obvious that Hakim is just as confident as Brian. Not only that but the crowd's reaction to him tells me that they're use to getting a good show when he shows up and hits the road.
"Ok people listen up. The course is the same as you're use to. First one back takes it all. And I promise there won't be any surprises with the bridge this time." Tej winked at me. He winked. He's a hard man to figure you know that? He's mostly all smug and shit with me but every once in a while he does stuff that's like he's not as hard ass as he lets on. "But that's not to say you don't have to watch out for other surprises." Tej nodded to one of the girls on the side of the course and she walked out onto the road and stood on the line between Brian and Suki's cars.
She raised her arms. We all revved our engines. She dropped her arms with a flourish and we were off. I shot out ahead of Brian right from the line but Hakim got in front of me. Suki was bringing up the rear. Her car, good as Jimmy had built it, did not have the balls to be racing in the assembled crowd but Suki was doing her damnedest to keep up.
I found myself running at Hakim's bumper as he did his best to anticipate what I was going to do next and managed to every time I went to pass him. Much as I admired him for being seriously good he was also seriously pissing me off.
We made the first turn and Suki went wide, throwing her even farther off the pace. She fell back to a few lengths behind Brian. I took the first turn almost too tight because I was a hair away from racing on the sidewalk but it did have one advantage. Hakim in no way anticipated me nearly jumping the curb and it gave me an opening to nip up around him on the inside. An opening which you can be damn sure I took.
He wasn't pleased and I wish I could tell you I got in front of him but I didn't. We ran neck and neck, side by side as Brian looked for a way around us. He tried to the left and then when that failed to the right. He went for the space between us but Hakim moved closer to me. We were going 110 and the second corner loomed.
We took it in unison and thankfully both our cars drifted around the corner in unison or we would have crashed. Brian was still not far behind us. He tried to zip up on the outside again but I cut him off neatly. I'm having enough trouble keeping side by side with Hakim. I do not need that 1000 horsepower Skyline mocking me with it's cute little round tail lights up in front.
As we levelled off after the corner I saw something that managed to strike real fear in me. There was a car parked in the middle of the road. It was more in Hakim's way then mine but there was no mistaking it was placed there on purpose. This was Tej's surprise for this test. I only had to dodge a bit to the right but Hakim had to go well out of his way to the left to get around the car. I used that to my advantage to get up in the lead.
It was good to be in the front with no one's flashing tails letting me know I was losing. However I now had two very irate males in very fast cars trying to pass me. I couldn't dodge in front of them both at the same time so I did the only thing I could think of to do to get some breathing room. I hit NOS one and started to pray to a god that I'd forgotten all about quite some time ago that I didn't blow myself, the car, or both up with the untested NOS system.
The car bucked with the raw power and shot forward. I got a good amount of distance on both the guys who'd been pushing up on me. I did make one critical mistake however. The third corner was a lot closer then I'd remembered.
It's gonna be some kinda fun to take that corner at 130 cause that's as slow as I'm gonna be able to get this down to before that corner's here. I moved the car well to the inside of the street to give me lots of room to drift the corner before I hit a building on the outside. I threw the wheel and the car flew sideways around the corner, squealing and smoking and flying toward the brick warehouse on the corner. I straightened it out just before I would have been up on the sidewalk. I started to pick speed back up after I levelled out and I watched Brian and Hakim take the corner together.
Brian was on the outside and as he flew around the corner he slid too wide in his drift and ended up on the sidewalk. He didn't hit the building but he did have to slow down to get down off the sidewalk. Hakim took advantage of the situation and came flying up at me. The final corner was right ahead of me. I moved to the inside again and kept pushing the gas. I was not losing.
I'm not losing, I'm not losing. I kept chanting it in my head as I squealed around the final corner and watched Hakim do the same in my rearview mirror. As soon as I levelled out I hit NOS 2 and flew ahead. Hakim did the same and flew up at the back of the car. He must have misjudged the distance because his front bumper kissed my rear and gave me a bit of a jolt. I think both of us were a bit shocked he did that which gave Brian the opening he needed to hit his NOS and fly up the outside of us and get half a car in front of me.
The two of us set to keeping Hakim behind us and battling for first between ourselves. I dodged another parked car as Brian did the same. When we both swerved back into the center of the road I hit the NOS again. I could see the squealing fans from the point on the course I'd reached and I wasn't losing. Not this time. I needed the win.
Hell, I needed the money. Leon's car was an expensive bitch to fix and I was getting low. I was so determined to do it all on my own with the money I'd won and not touch 'the bank' money.
I'd caught Brian by surprise with the extra burst of speed and I got in front of him. He hit his third shot of NOS in the same race and started to catch me again but it wasn't enough. I flashed over the line half a car in front of him and he was in turn about a quarter car in front of Hakim. Suki crossed a few seconds after the three of us but she had a triumphant look on her face for even having finished so soon after three such worthy cars.
As soon as I got out of my car on legs made shaky by the left over adrenaline in my veins I was caught up by the crowd and pushed forward threw them toward the center. The pushed me into a make shift winner's circle where Tej and Rome waited with Fiona and Jimmy.
"Here you go girl. Here's what you won. I got 12 stacked for my girl here!" Tej called and the crowd went wild. He handed my money and I just looked at it. It was me getting handed 12 grand here. Not Dom, me. I pulled about a grand off the top of the stack and handed it to Tej. He looked at it in surprise.
"Mutual trust and respect, right?" I asked with an eyebrow cocked.
"You're alright Letty. And the best racer we've ever had, I mean that."
"Thanks, but it was mostly the car." Where did the modestly come from? Well the car was a big part of it, and pure dumb luck was another part. Not to mention the fact I'd just been in a good place for dodging parked cars.
"Parked cars Tej? You know it's a sin to hit a parked car right? They's like innocent victims." He laughed at me.
"I couldn't just send the three of you guys out for a boring old race. You're all too good for that. Oh, and I'll make sure you get a copy of the tape."
"Tape? Of what?"
"The race. I had a few people up on the roofs along the course. We'll be able to put together a pretty good video of the race when we edit what they shot onto one video stream."
"You gotta be kidden me!" I laughed.
"Nope. Everyone can see your win. Hell, I should sell the shit like those underground racing tapes. People'd pay for this shit." He chuckled. "Go talk to your public girl. It's you they're here to see tonight!" With that Tej walked away and Brian walked up to me.
People want to see me. It's me they're calling out to, looking up to. That's a heady thing.
"Wow Lett. You're even better then I knew you were." Brian really looked shocked.
"And talk about improvement Chumpy. I mean, you came second and you weren't that far off. I mean, you weren't close, but not too far." I teased and Brian grinned.
"Dude, I almost had you!" I laughed.
"Almost had me? Almost had me? Ya never had me! You never had your car. It don't matter whether you win by an inch or a mile. Winnings winning." We both broke down into uproarious laughter with that. It was good to remember the good times. Hakim walked up and gave us a look like he thought we might be mildly crazy. He wasn't far off of course.
"Well, the two of you got lucky with those cars in all the right places eh?" If he hadn't been obviously joking I woulda been throwing my second punch of the night.
"Yeah, but if you get another night off before I leave I'll give you a chance to make some of your money back." I grinned as Hakim and I bumped closed fists in a gesture of mutual respect. He would have beaten Brian if he hadn't fallen back when he dodged that car.
"I don't know, will Bullit be racin again too?" Hakim gave Brian a speculative glance. "You got better since you been here man. I had you easy last time, but I couldn't keep up wit you this time. Course Jimmy's had more time with the Skyline since then."
"I'll take you in my Evo if you want dude. I let you win last time." Brian smiled his most charming smile and Hakim laughed.
"The two of you are insane, you deserve each other."
I linked an arm with Brian's. "That's how we see it too." I smirked.
"That how it is?" Hakim had clearly taken me the wrong way.
"Naw, we just friends. Well, we're friends as long as Brian keeps in his place and keeps loosing." Hakim looked me up and down.
"In that case, what you doin tonight after races?"
"She's got plans wit me." Rome came up behind me and put an arm around my shoulders. I looked up at him in surprise but didn't say anything. I was curious where this was goin. Rome gave me a look that clearly said to go along with it.
"Oh yeah, I forgot that was tonight. Sorry." I smiled apologetically at Hakim who shrugged, said good night and walked away. "What was that about?" I questioned Rome.
"Nothin. You just don't wanna get mixed up with him. He's as fast with girls as he is with his car."
"I think I proved I can take carea myself with Julian didn't I?"
"Yeah, but unlike Orange Julius Hakim is charming."
"He was a'ight." I looked around at the people who were starting to organize another race. "What do you two say we watch this next race and then go party huh?"
"Hell yeah!" Brian grinned.
"That sounds ok." Rome agreed.
"Can we ask Tej, Fi and Suki though?" Brian asked.
"Sure, the more the merrier." I agreed and about half an hour later I found myself with my group of new friends getting loaded at a trendy night spot we'd reached in Tej's quad cab Dodge.